Current commercial processes to form tungsten carbide (WC) involve heating stoichiometrically mixed fine powders of elemental tungsten and carbon in an oven at temperatures of 1500.degree. C. until the reaction: ##STR1## is complete. This process occurs in approximately six hours. Some commerical processes use electric energy to achieve these temperatures and because of the cost of electricity and the length of time to maintain these high temperatures, this type processing is quite expensive. Even those processes using fossil fuels find that heating an oven to temperatures of 1500.degree. C. can consume large quantities of energy, thus resulting in high processing expenses.
Another disadvantage of the long processing time can be seen in the overall particle size of the tungsten carbide product. It has been determined that shorter reaction time (or shorter time at temperature) reduces grain growth, thus producing a smaller grain size which in turn adds to the overall strength and toughness to the final product.
Those concerned with these and other problems recognize the need for an improved process for producing tungsten carbide.